I have a class a cdl so I am not a rookie to towing trailers.
Towing thoughts?
Quality of the tt?

We have a 5 month old boy. My wife has 4 brothers with families and I have 1 brother with a family. Grandparents are all close. I can see many people from our families visiting while we camp. One of my wife's brothers has a 24' pontoon and would most likely stay with us. I could also see my purchase spurring other family members to purchase campers.

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Correct me if I wrong but you have 800# between your max and dry weight. You can count on 1000# for food, equipment, clothes etc. Plus you water (8.1# per gallon), plus gas, plus weight of pax.

So my figures you over trailer size, or under TV. We were at the same issue with our setup until late last year.

Our max tow was 10,000#. Trailer dry was 8600. By the time you add everything up I was overweight with a undersize TV. While I did do it for one year, being very careful where and how I traveled. I just did not feel safe doing this.

I have read several articles on this in travel and truck articles which talks about placing drivers at risk of being sued if they are involved in a towing-related accident

I have a class a cdl so I am not a rookie to towing trailers.
Towing thoughts?
Quality of the tt?

We have a 5 month old boy. My wife has 4 brothers with families and I have 1 brother with a family. Grandparents are all close. I can see many people from our families visiting while we camp. One of my wife's brothers has a 24' pontoon and would most likely stay with us. I could also see my purchase spurring other family members to purchase campers.

Any advice and thoughts are much appreciated!

IMHO, you would be too heavy, especially with your family loaded up. I had a similar dilemma last year and ended up buying a 2500.
The problem with a half ton truck, is you gotta watch your payload capacity. You'll hit that way before you will the tow capacity. Your trailer is listed as 860lbs tongue weight. That's dry, from the factory without batteries, propane or the weight of your hitch. I suspect when fully loaded for camping, your tongue weight will be pushing 1000lbs. That comes off your trucks payload capacity before you start deducting the weight inside your truck. Full tank of gas, all occupants plus gear. It adds up fast.

My half ton had a payload capacity of 1600lbs, had a 5.7 V8 and 3.55 tranny. Fully loaded with my 32' Laredo (6800 dry) batteries, propane and WDH she pulled fine on the road but I'd get a lot of sway in the slightest breeze and, especially if passed by a semi. This was with only my wife and I in the truck. It got to where I didn't enjoy the trip out of worry about crashing. All the numbers with my setup were good, except for the payload capacity. I'm sure fully loaded I was either at or over my trucks payload capacity, even with the airbags I installed. This created a lot of sway. Now that I'm pulling with a 2500, things are much better.

I'm not saying you can't do it, especially with your experience. I'm just saying be aware of your limitations and know what you're getting into.

Make the family members tent camp along side of you... you wake up refreshed, showered, and dry... They wake up absolutely roughing it... They'll be jealous enough to buy a trailer. Why buy a cow if the milk is free? Cruel, I know... but I'm old, I'm allowed...

If you can get a 2500/f250 to tow with, you will be happier. But, if you pack right. You should be ok. I tow my Jayco with similar specs (7050 empty, 8300 loaded and weighed on CAT scale). My truck is the F150 eco boost. My challenge is payload. The 1300 pounds of available payload gets swallowed up quickly with my tongue weight (800 or so) and my passengers. I really can't afford to put anything in the truck, so I use my storage bins in the camper quite efficiently. The camper has its own breaks so the TV is not an issue there. I've towed this set up several thousand miles over the past 3 years, including a trip from Ohio to New York without an issue. This past weekend we had a lot of wind on the way home from camp, and that was not a fun experience. That was the first time I really wanted a bigger TV. Right now my truck is going to make do until I can afford the next step up. I don't go over 60mph unless I am passing someone. The truck can do it, but I find the drive much more pleasant when I am in the slow lane and not stressing over lane changes. Enjoy and good luck!

All I can say is, research, research, research. When the DW and I started our search for our TT, we had for our TV a 2003 Dodge Dakota extended cab 4.7 magnum with a tow package.
I researched our truck and found that the that the ax towing capacity we had was 6600#. Payload capacity was negligible, maybe 1000#. For the most part it would be just her and myself.
So starting point was what could the truck pull. Everything that I have read as a good rule of thumb, was that you should keep a safety factor of about 1000# under the max towing cap.
After looking at all the different trailers and comparing weights and lengths, we looked at BH styles (grand kids), slides or not, (adding a slide in our case added at least 800#).
We settled with the TT w have now, The StarCraft Autumn Ridge 235FB. the match with the TV put me at just over 800# to spare. I do have a Blue Ox WDH with anti sway.
I pulled this trailer for 2 years wit this truck with no real issues. The major thing was the wind and what it would do to my fuel consumption. Which sucked.
I have now upgrades the TV to a F50 with a diesel, so n more worries about whether or no to go somewhere.
Long story short, research and talk to others and know what your TV can handle.
It is nice to be able to drive down the road with the trailer on and relax while doing it.

Doubtful you will have the payload to handle the tongue weight on a 7-8k lb TT. Check your door sticker for max cargo capacity. Add 100 pounds for hitch and realize published tongue weights mean very little. Take the expected weight of the camper loaded and calculate 12-15%. This is what your tongue weight needs to be to reduce sway.

Having looked at the posts here I agree, too much trailer in regards to TV gvwr.

And, I can't bring myself to spend 30k on a camper. Maybe 19k for a new 28' hideout. Maybe even 10k on a 4 yr old 25 to 28' bhs. Still thinking it over. Do I pay off bills over the next 5 years or go have some fun. The practical side says pay off bills. Fun side says go camping!! My wife is just going along, she's not 100% yet.